IGN Comics: Wolverine is drawing a lot of flack, especially from Storm, for his involvement with X-Force. And yet he admitted outright that he would have done the same things over again given the choice. Is there a sense of alienation building within him as he doesn't see the rest of the X-Men willing to do what needs to be done to safeguard their race?

Lowe: If I can jump in on one thing. Wolverine does not see it like the other X-Men not holding up their side of the bargain. Something we've been trying to be careful about is that does what he feels he has to do to keep mutantkind safe, even if it's killing. But he doesn't want that for ALL the X-Men. With both Wolfsbane and X-23, he hasn't wanted them involved with this kind of thing. He lost his innocence quite early in his life, so he puts a pretty big premium on innocence and on people getting blood on their hands.

At the same time, he sees the decisions that he and Cyclops made as necessary to what they were doing. Survival. They didn't have the luxury of taking the risks that they may have in the past for the sake of pulling punches and finding a non- violent way to solve problems. They made the best decisions they could with the information they had at hand. He sees that as important, but he certainly doesn't want all the X-Men to be doing that kind of thing.

IGN Comics: We saw the new X-Force roster in this issue. Can you go over how you guys decided who should be on the team from a tactical and team dynamic perspective?

Lowe: I don't want to get too much into that, because the book will answer a lot of that. Rather than go through one by one, how about this: some of the characters were already on X-Force, and we'll see their purpose for staying on the team. I don't want to let the cat out of the bag and ruin Rick and Jerome's story, but when people see why Fantomex and why Deadpool is there, they're going to find it quite interesting how it all works together.

IGN Comics: I believe in the announcement on Marvel.com you said that Warren is the co-captain and financial backer of the team now. Why does he see a continued need for X-Force?

Lowe: In the first arc of X-Force, you're going to find that he has a very personal investment in their first adventure. That's going to reflect a lot of his motivation for bankrolling and being a part of this team. It's going to come down to that. He's not quite in the same place that Cyclops and Wolverine were with the last X-Force, where it was a team put together to carry out the hard choices that needed to be made. This becomes a little more personal for him.

IGN Comics: As far as Wolverine's motivations, is he keeping Warren in that position in order to have someone to keep him honest and make sure they don't cross a line?

Lowe: I wouldn't say it's quite as cut and dry as that. He knows Warren has been a part of this conflict for a long time. Warren has been through some really terrible stuff and had to make tough decisions. Wolverine, in a lot of ways, trusts him, even though he doesn't always like him, as we've seen in the past. The two have never had a great relationship. I think he knows Warren is a good guy to have his back. That's mostly how it breaks down.

IGN Comics: Cable had his big heroic sacrifice in this story. But you guys also brought back X-Man a little while back in the Dark X-Men mini-series. I'm wondering if Cable's impending death motivated that return, and if we're going to see Nate step up to fill the void left by Cable?

Lowe: To be honest, they were pretty unrelated. X-Man isn't going to be replacing Cable. We have been talking a lot about Nate Grey and what ways he can fit into the X-Men's world. We've got the start of some plans that we're still in the process of hashing out over here. So I can't talk much about it, but they're pretty cool. Keep your eyes peeled on that front. When we do bring X-Man back it'll be a big announcement, so it'll be hard to miss.

IGN Comics: And to wrap up, I want to briefly go into each X-book and discuss how they fit into the larger puzzle. Is Uncanny going to be the book that most directly deals with the five lights situation?

Lowe: Yeah. Coming out of Second Coming, Uncanny deals with the five lights firsthand. This is the biggest new addition to the X-world in years, so that takes center stage. Uncanny is the flagship book – that's the center of mutantkind on Earth. Uncanny deals with most of that.

IGN Comics: So the cast will still be pretty wide?

Lowe: The cast will be wide, but it also focuses in on a lot of the focal characters – the most important characters like Cyclops, Emma, Hope, Magneto, and Namor. But you will still be seeing a lot of other mutant characters in supporting roles.

IGN Comics: Fraction established Sublime as an upcoming threat to the team just before Second Coming began. Are we going to see him resurface immediately, or will he stay out of the limelight for a bit longer as the five lights situation takes precedence?

Lowe: The second arc after Second Coming will deal with that.

IGN Comics: X-Men Legacy has sort of been about Rogue serving as an instructor to various younger mutants. Does that focus narrow now that she's paired with Hope, or is it remaining an ensemble book?

Lowe: It's still pretty much an ensemble book. For example, in the next arc Cyclops tasks Rogue with taking some of the students to India for a purpose involving Indra. They get caught up with something much bigger than they expected to be dealing with out there. That arc actually doesn't have Hope in it, because Cyclops sees the strategic value in not having Rogue be the only person dealing with Hope. He's trying to build that trust with other people and widen her horizons in a way. Indra has a central role in that arc. Anole also has one in there. The arc after that will be delving into another young mutant and a different problem that Rogue will help them to deal with. Hope will be a part of that arc. So Legacy still focuses on Rogue and several of the younger mutants.

IGN Comics: Gambit has also been a background player in that series. Given what happened with him in the Hellbound mini-series, is his story going to continue in Legacy?

Lowe: In time, that's probably the place where we'll deal with most of it. There are various other things going on in the foreground more. We'll find time to fill in Gambit's story more, but the focus isn't going to be on him for at lest the first arc or two.

IGN Comics: What about New Mutants? Is the cast of that book staying pretty much the same?

Lowe: Yeah, the cast remains the same, at least for the arc following Second Coming. The cast got really shaken up in Second Coming, between Warlock having to take human lives, to Karma losing her leg, to Sam going through the hell that he went through, both in the mission against Hodge and in Limbo. So the cast is the same going into this next arc, but with the title of that being "Fall of the Mutants", there are changes a' coming. And not in a happy "I'm going to pick a different team" sort of way. [laughs]

IGN Comics: And with the X-Men series that just launched, is that going to be existing a bit separately from the rest given that it's dealing with this vampire problem?

Lowe: It definitely has to do with the major continuity and what's going on. It's not quite as separate as a book like Astonishing has become. The main thing with X-Men is that it's dealing with the Marvel Universe at large more than the other X-books will be. The first arc deals with vampires, which aren't a usual mutant issue. Moving onto other stories after the first arc, it'll have a lot to do with the greater Marvel Universe and the different threats that could come from outside the normal parameters.